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Surinaams
Overview =Setting= Surinaams is more of a Dutch creole than a conlang. It's setting is in the ex-Dutch colony of Suriname. In this alternate world, the people of Suriname developed their own version of their colonisers tongue. This Dutch base was mixed with elemens and influences from English, Portuguese, Spanish, and a small amount of French, as the languages of the surrounding countries made their mark on the language. =Basic Grammar= Word Order Word order is the main area in which Surinaams differs from Dutch. Surinaams adopts a more Romance style and is written in an SVO format. Nouns Most nouns describe persons, places, things, and abstract ideas, and are treated as grammatically distinct from verbs. Gender Again, in a split from Dutch, Surinaams only has two genders; masculine and feminine (in comparison to Dutch's masculine, feminine and neuter). A simple rule has arisen for determining whether a noun is masculine or feminine; the de maawis verkoper rule. All words ending with th letter a/d/e/i/k/m/o/p/r/s/v/w are feminine ('de maawis verkoper '(meaning the mouse seller)). Examples: luu'n - moon (masculine) vutbo'l' - football (masculine) kru'n' - crown (masculine) stadio'n' - stadium (masculine) fiete't' - bycicle (masculine) ald'a' - village (feminine) sta'd' - city (feminine) beel'd' - image (feminine) rot'a' - rock (feminine) aut'o' - car (feminine) Articles Definite Articles When referring to one particular person or item, the definite article is used. The definite article '''''de is used for both masculine and feminine nouns: de zong - the song (masculine) de baat - the boat (masculine) de zop - the shop (feminine) de hond - the dog (feminine) The article does not change when the nouns become plural: de zongen - the songs (masculine) de batten - the boats (masculine) de zopen - the shops (feminine) de honden - the dogs (feminine) Indefinite Articles The indefinite article is een for both genders when the noun is singular: een zong - a song (masculine) een baat - a boat (masculine) een zop - a shop (feminine) een hond - a dog (feminine) The translation of "some" is zum, and it's used as the indefinite article when the noun is plural: zum zongen - some songs (masculine) zum batten - some boats (masculine) zum zopen - some shops (feminine) zum honden - some dogs (feminine) Pronouns Personal Pronouns Possesive Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns Like with articles, the gender of the noun has no effect on the demonstrative pronoun which is used. Verbs The Infinitive All verb infinitves in Surinaams end in '-en': zok'en' - to search winn'en' - to win bevok'en' - to watch vlaaj'en' - to fly Stems The stem of the infinitive stays the same in all tenses for regular (weak) verbs: zok'en - to search '''winn'en - to win 'bevok'en - to watch 'vlaaj'en - to fly Present Tense The general rule of conjegation is shown below: Example: Perfect Tense The perfect tense is made up of two parts: the auxilliary verb and the past participle. The verb '''habben (to have) is usually used as the auxilliary verb. Its present tense is used: The past participle is formed like so: Examples: gezoked - searched gewinned - won gebevoked - watched gevlaajed - flown Therefore, the perfect tense in full looks like so: =Dictionary= Colours koleuren - colours blaaw - blue bron - brown dorad - gold geel - yellow grun - green oraange - orange paars - purple rood - red roze - pink vit - white zilver - silver zvaart - black Numbers nomeren - numbers een - one duuz - two dree - three vur - four vijf - five zes - six zeven - seven aakt - eight nuen - nine dez - ten aalf - eleven tvaalf - twelve dreeden - thirteen vurden - fourteen vijfden - fifthteen zesden - sixteen zevenden - seventeen aakden - eighteen nuenden - nineteen duuzdez - twenty duuzdez-een - twenty-one dreedez - thirty vurdez - fourty vijfdez - fifty zesdez - sixty zevendez - seventy aakdez - eighty nuendez - ninety een-hundred - one hundred een-daazend - one thousand een-miljon - one million een-biljon - one billion Useful Vocabulary geen - no naat - not Verbs habben - to have seijn - to be vlaajen - to fly =Example text= ... Category:Languages